Curriculum Vitae

Experience:

• Biologist, naturalist, writer, photographer, lecturer, illustrator, graphic artist

• Co-founder of the Southeastern Arizona Bird Observatory
• One of fewer than 150 hummingbird banders in the U.S.; handled over 4000 individual hummingbirds of 16 species since 1990.
• Field experience includes Arizona, Texas (north-central, Gulf Coast, lower Rio Grande Valley, Big Bend), Belize & Tikal (10 trips, 6 as tour leader), Mexico (eastern and western, including 6 trips to Copper Canyon as tour leader), Colorado, California, Alaska (Pribilof Islands, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), Costa Rica
• Co-manager of The Nature Conservancy's Ramsey Canyon Preserve, 1988-1996
• Docent and wildlife rehabilitator, Fort Worth Nature Center & Refuge, 1977-1988
• Zookeeper/aquarist, Fort Worth Zoo, 1976-1979
• Past officer of Huachuca Audubon Society, Fort Worth Audubon Society, North Texas Herpetological Society
• B.S. in Biology from University of Texas at Arlington, 1986

Publications/Media:

• Author of A Field Guide to Hummingbirds of North America (Peterson Field Guide Series®, January 2002)
• Author of Attracting and Feeding Hummingbirds (T.F.H. Publications, March 2000)
• Author of the Blue-throated Hummingbird species account in the Birds of North America series (American Ornithologists Union 2000)
• Author of title essay in Good Birders Don't Wear White (Houghton Mifflin, 2007)
• Author of guest-expert sidebar "Good Birders Don't Wear White" in Pete Dunne on Bird Watching (Houghton Mifflin, 2003)
• Author of chapters on trogons in The Sibley Guide to Bird Life & Behavior and The Firefly Encyclopedia of Birds (Andromeda Oxford Ltd. 2002)
• Scriptwriter for the Advanced Birding Video: Hummingbirds of North America (Peregrine Video Productions)
• Author of "First nesting of Eared Trogon in the United States," Trogon News December 1991 [Huachuca Audubon Society], reprinted in Winging It! July 1992 [American Birding Association].
• Co-author with Tom Wood of chapter on hummingbirds in the National Geographic Reference Atlas to the Birds of North America (which didn't turn out nearly as well as we'd expected)
• Co-author with Tom Wood of text for Birds of North America,  September 2005 from Sterling Publishing (which also didn't turn out nearly as well as we'd hoped).
• Author or co-author of articles for WildBird, Winging It! (American Birding Association), Birder's World, A.F.A. Watchbird (American Federation of Aviculture), The Keeper (American Association of Zoo Keepers), various local and regional periodicals
• Technical consultant/contributor to:
  "Flights of Fancy" in January 2007 National Geographic Magazine
  The Sibley Guide to Birds by David A. Sibley
  The Lives of North American Birds by Kenn Kaufman
  A Birder's Guide to Southeastern Arizona by Rick Taylor (Lane/ABA Guide)
  Davis and Russell's Finding Birds in Southeast Arizona (Tucson Audubon Society)
  A Guide to Birds of Mexico and Northern Central America by Steve Howell & Sophie Webb
  The World of the Hummingbird by Harry Thurston (out of print)
  How to Spot Hawks and Eagles by Clay & Patricia Sutton
  How to Spot Butterflies by Clay & Patricia Sutton
  Hummingbirds: The Sun Catchers by Jeff & April Sayre
  The Snakes of Texas by Alan Tennant (condensed into A Field Guide to Texas Snakes)
  Birder's World magazine
  Arizona Highways magazine
  Ranger Rick magazine
  Pop-up Video on VH1
  Win Ben Stein's Money on Comedy Central
• Featured in articles that have appeared in National Geographic, Smithsonian, WildBird, Living Bird (Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology), New York Times, L.A. Times; in television series BirdWatch (PBS), The Desert Speaks (PBS), and National Geographic Today (National Geographic Channel); in BBC documentary series on the human senses, hosted by Nigel Marven; on radio programs for BBC Four; and local and regional television and radio broadcasts within the U.S.

Personal:

• Born and raised in Fort Worth, Texas (4th generation Texan)
• Lifelong bird and reptile enthusiast, birder since 1966, aquarist since 1967, amateur botanist since 1986, butterfly watcher since 1989
• Married to Tom Wood (co-founder of SABO, former manager of Ramsey Canyon Preserve, and former director of Fort Worth Nature Center) since 1983
• Arizona resident since 1988, Bisbee resident since 1995
• Wildlife gardener since 1985, catering particularly to hummingbirds and butterflies
• "Mom" to Jesse, a 19-year-old captive-bred Congo African Grey Parrot; Josie, an 8-year-old tricolor Border Collie adopted from the Bisbee animal shelter; and Bart, a year-old kitten who adopted us after we found him hiding behind our garbage cans one hot summer afternoon (he's an indoor-only cat, though it's taken persistence on our part to convince him of that). Our previous cat, Pancho, who passed away in August 2005, was a 15-year-old, 18-pound, indoor-only cat adopted from the Humane Society of Southern Arizona before it began promoting feral cat colonies that compound the cruelty of abandonment, devastate local wildlife, and endanger human health and safety.
• Lover of folk, rock, and blues (alone and in combination), especially Led Zeppelin, the Grateful Dead, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Crosby/Stills/Nash/Young (separately and in various combinations), the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, Bob Dylan, Richard Thompson, the late, great Townes van Zandt, the late, great Warren Zevon, Peter Gabriel, James Taylor, Chris Smither, Steeleye Span, Willis Alan Ramsey, Austin Lounge Lizards, Camper Van Beethoven, They Might Be Giants
• Fan of the comedy of Monty Python, Spinal Tap, The Simpsons, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart
• Enthusiastic but not terribly accomplished musician (autoharp, bowed psaltery)
• Student of pre-Columbian art and archaeology, particularly the Maya
• Descendant of Scottish Clan MacIntosh (motto: Touch not the cat bot [without] a glove)

Home  |  Virtual Gallery   |  Hummingbird Feeding  |  Autoharps  |  Ecuador!
Errata, Corrigenda, and Addenda to A Field Guide to Hummingbirds  |  E-mail